Indicator Metadata

Mental Health General Hospital Inpatient Separations as a Percentage (Pan-Canadian) of All General Hospital Inpatient Separations, by Province, Diagnosis Category, Sex and/or Age Group

Short/Other Names

Not applicable

Description

Percentage of separations (discharges or deaths) for mental illness/addiction out of all general hospital separations by
–Jurisdiction (province/territory)
–Age group
–Sex
–Diagnosis category

Interpretation

This indicator provides descriptive information about the proportion of mental illness inpatient separations from general hospitals in Canada stratified by diagnostic, geographic and demographic characteristics.

Mental Health General Hospital Inpatient Separations as a Percentage (Pan-Canadian) of All General Hospital Inpatient Separations, by Province, Diagnosis Category, Sex and/or Age Group

Short/Other Names

Not applicable

Indicator Description and Calculation

Description

Percentage of separations (discharges or deaths) for mental illness/addiction out of all general hospital separations by
–Jurisdiction (province/territory)
–Age group
–Sex
–Diagnosis category

Calculation: Description

Percentage of total separations in general hospitals involving mental illness/addiction = Total separations in general hospitals involving mental illness/addiction divided by total separations in general hospitals involving both mental illness/addiction and non–mental illness/addiction diagnoses, by grouping (such as age, sex, province/territory or diagnosis category) multiplied by 100

Calculation: Geographic Assignment

Place of service

Calculation: Type of Measurement

Percentage or proportion

Calculation: Adjustment Applied

None

Calculation: Method of Adjustment

Not applicable

Denominator

Description:
Inpatient separations from general hospitals involving mental illness/addiction and non–mental illness/addiction diagnosesInclusions:
1. Admission to a general hospital in Canada

2. Sex recorded as male or female for analyses with breakdown by sex

3. Valid age recorded for analyses with breakdown by age

Exclusions:
1. Newborns

2. Psychiatric hospital separations

Numerator

Description:
Inpatient separations from general hospitals involving mental illness/addiction as the primary diagnosis and/or diagnosis category (for data extracted from the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System [OMHRS])Inclusions:
1. Admission to a general hospital in Canada

For information on prior years, please contact the Mental Health and Addictions team at mentalhealth@cihi.ca.

Exclusions:
1. Newborns

2. Psychiatric hospital separations

Background, Interpretation and Benchmarks

Rationale

Having a solid picture of the proportions of separations and the trends over time provides health system planners and other decision-makers with information to plan care and evaluate the performance of their health care system.

Interpretation

This indicator provides descriptive information about the proportion of mental illness inpatient separations from general hospitals in Canada stratified by diagnostic, geographic and demographic characteristics.

HSP Framework Dimension

Health System Inputs and Characteristics: Health system resources

Areas of Need

Not applicable

Targets/Benchmarks

Not applicable

References

Not applicable

Availability of Data Sources and Results

Data Sources

DAD, HMDB, HMHDB, OMHRS

Available Data Years

Type of Year:
FiscalFirst Available Year:
2003Last Available Year:
2015

2014–2015: Two ICD-10-CA diagnosis codes were removed from the extraction criteria for the Discharge Abstract Database–Hospital Morbidity Database (DAD-HMDB), one of the data sources that populates the Hospital Mental Health Database (HMHDB). This decreased the volume of separations.

Quality Statement

Caveats and Limitations

As this indicator excludes psychiatric hospitals, it should not be construed to represent all mental health and addiction hospital separations in Canada.

Many factors contribute to the observed variations in the analysis of indicators at the provincial/territorial and regional levels. These include, but are not limited to, geography, population health, provincial and regional health service resources, and health services administration. It is very important to consider these factors and the effect they may have on indicator results when conducting comparative analyses. The variation in results between provinces/territories or between health regions suggests systematic differences in

–Provincial/territorial or regional health policies, practices and resources
–Geography and urban/rural population distribution
–Environmental and socio-economic characteristics
–Types of patients served and acuity of illness
–The range of health services available beyond general and specialty psychiatric hospitals (such as community mental health services)
–Accessibility and awareness of alternative points of entry to the health system

The above list suggests a few of the factors that should be considered when making provincial/territorial and/or regional comparisons.

Trending Issues

2011–2012: Additional ICD-10-CA diagnosis codes were added to the extraction criteria for the DAD-HMDB, one of the data sources that populates the HMHDB. This increased the volume of separations.

2014–2015: Two ICD-10-CA diagnosis codes were removed from the extraction criteria for the DAD-HMDB, one of the data sources that populates the HMHDB. This decreased the volume of separations.

Comments

Separations by year are based on the date of discharge, not the date of admission. As such, records with invalid discharge dates are not included.

The HMHDB is an event-based rather than a person-based database; individuals may be represented multiple times in the data.